Spy Thriller: An Involuntary Spy: An espionage thriller (Involuntary Spy Espionage Thriller Series Book 1) (19 page)

     Seth sat at the table in the Congressional hearing, being grilled by Senators who were obviously pro-GMO foods and those who were obviously against it.  The hearings were being televised on C-SPAN.  He had been supplied with Jay Standing, an attorney who sat by his side, but the rest of the audience was composed of elected officials.  There were two things you could tell about a politician; the old adage about when his lips were moving, he was probably lying; and that he never spoke for himself, only for the one whose ass he happened to be kissing at the time.

     “The Chair recognizes the distinguished Senator from Missouri,” said the Chairman.

     “Mr. Rogan, I understand that you petitioned the Russian government for political asylum, is that correct?”

     “Yes.”

     “Do you intend to exercise your Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination?” asked the Senator.

     “Objection,” said Standing.  “My client has an agreement of immunity with the government.”

     “Whatever piece of paper he has from an assistant U.S. Attorney is not going to help him here.”

     “Don’t respond,” Standing whispered to him.

     “No, I won’t stay quiet on this,” said Seth, and stood up.

     “Senator, I don’t need to exercise the Fifth Amendment, because I have done nothing wrong,” he said.

     “Now you’ve done it,” said his attorney. “You’ve opened the door.”

     “You say you’ve done nothing wrong.  You stole secret government reports, sir, then fled the country” said the Senator.

     “I took reports from my boss that he and the EPA were hiding from the U.S. government, and I delivered them to the FBI,” said Seth.

     The Chairman pounded his gavel.  “That will be enough, Mr. Rogan.” Seth ignored him and continued over his voice.

    “I left the country because he tried to kill me to stop me from turning over the reports to the FBI.”

     “Order!”  The Chairman pounded his gavel furiously.

     “And after I left the country, the CIA tried to kill me.”

     “That will be all, Mr. Rogan!”

     “But it’s not all, Mr. Chairman.”

     “This is a Senate hearing, Mr. Rogan, and you must obey the rules of order.”

     “When I left, Mr. Chairman, I had the constitutional right to freedom of speech.  Has that right been stripped from the American people while I was gone?”

     “Mr. Rogan, you are out of order.  The distinguished Senator from Missouri has the floor.”

     “Mr. Rogan,” said the Senator, “You did break into the EPA Chief’s office, did you not?”

     “Objection!” said Standing.

     “He was not the EPA Chief then, Senator, he was a vice president of Germinat.”

     “But you did break into his office, is that correct?”

     “Yes.”

     “And you still claim you did nothing wrong?”

     “Objection, Mr. Chairman, this hearing is not about what Mr. Rogan may or may have not done wrong,” said Standing.

     “Mr. Standing, your function here is to represent the witness with regard to his constitutional rights.  This is not a court of law, and we are not bound by any rules of evidence in our inquiry.  Are you instructing your client not to answer the question?”

     “No, Mr. Chairman, I am merely pointing out that the question is irrelevant.”

     “Your objection is noted, Mr. Standing.  Now, Mr. Rogan, please answer the question.”

     “Sometimes rules have to be broken for the greater good.  If Nazi generals had done that during World War II perhaps millions of innocent people would not have been slaughtered like pigs,” said Seth.

     “Order!” said the Chairman.  “Your answer is non-responsive.”

     “That’s why I broke the rules, Senator.  Because Germinat, with the FDA’s and EPA’s help, intended to harm innocent citizens of this country with genetically engineered foods that they knew where unsafe.  I exposed the reports to help my fellow Americans, not to betray them.”

     “Order!” barked the Chairman. “The Chair recognizes the distinguished Senator from Iowa.”

     “Mr. Rogan, I understand you are concerned with genetically engineered foods, but these hearings are about government corruption, not agriculture,” said asked the distinguished Senator.

     “Senator, without government corruption, none of these foods would have been approved,” said Seth.

     “How so?”

     “I think you know how it works, Senator.  The big chemical companies fill the coffers of one of your colleagues who is a lawmaker from an agricultural state such as, well, let’s take Iowa, for example, and the lawmaker recommends the president to install industry executives in high positions, such as the head of the FDA or the EPA, and, this way, the industry can approve its own products without safety testing.”

     “That is not responsive to my question,” said the Senator.

     “Order!” yelled the Chairman, pounding his gavel.  “You are speaking out of turn.”

     “I haven’t finished my answer yet, Mr. Chairman.    These appointees are supposed to work for the people.  Instead, they have held back facts and covered up deficiencies that they had a duty to disclose.  When I tried to expose this corruption, they sent agents of the government after me to try to kill me.  If that is not government corruption, then I don’t know what is.”

     “Mr. Rogan, this technology has been known to be safe for many years,” said the distinguished Senator from Iowa.  “And it’s important to have this technology to save the world from starvation.”

     “Sir, if this technology is allowed to continue without proper testing, there will be no more world to feed.  The doctors at the FDA and the EPA’s own scientists have been telling the government and Germinat for years that the technology was not safe, and that further testing was warranted, and the FDA, under the direction of Germinat employees, was urged to take the company’s word for it instead of insisting on further testing.  Then they tell the people that the government performs extensive safety testing on these food products.  It is not true!”

     “Order!” yelled the Chairman, pounding his gavel.  “That will be enough, Mr. Rogan.

     “Let him finish the answer,” said Standing.

     “My own tests conclude that the Bt toxin in GMOs foods breach the digestive system, and cause intestinal lesions and precancerous cells.  We already have an epidemic of diabetes and cancers of all kinds.  There are studies linking GMO foods to obesity, cancer, diabetes, digestive problems, allergies, attention deficit disorder, and even gluten intolerance.  Kids are even getting diabetes, which is unheard of in countries where there are no GMOs.  There are GMOs in baby formulas, for God’s sake.  If you don’t stop this now, you are going to have a generation of Americans with obesity, diabetes, colon cancer, babies with brain cancer, and that’s not including all the cancers, birth defects and sterilization from glyphosate poisoning from the non-Bt GMOs.  This epidemic will make DDT and thalidomide look like Halloween candy compared to GMO foods.”

     “Well, sir, obviously we have two sides to the story; yours, the word of a person who stole top secret government reports and went off to Russia, and scientific reports which say that these foods are just as safe as conventional ones.”

     “Those reports are not based on any human or even animal testing.  They are made by the industry.  Germinat is telling the government that its products are safe and the government takes its word for it.  We have to send a clear message to Congress that the people of the United States are not for sale.”

     “That will be all, Mr. Rogan,” said the Chairman.  “You are excused.”

     “And how about doing the job we hired you gentlemen and ladies for?  Start doing it by reading the legislation you pass.  If you don’t know what it says, don’t vote for it.”

     “Mr. Rogan, if you don’t stand down, you will be found in contempt,” said the Chairman.

     “Stop passing laws to benefit the chemical companies by sneaking them in on bills that nobody reads, and pass some legislation that helps prevent corruption in powerful political appointments.  If you want to stop corruption, pass laws limiting your terms in office and prohibiting you from taking jobs in the private sector for a reasonable time after you leave office.”

     “Mr. Rogan!” said the Chairman.  “You are dangerously close to being held in contempt.”

     “The FDA and the EPA are supposed to be protecting us, not the people who make the poison.”

***

     The hearing went on for days, with Seth being ushered to and from the Capitol building by armed U.S. Marshals.  Finally, his part was done and he could resume his life in the place he had selected as his choice.

     Blame always has to be assigned and punishment meted out.  Watergate had taught people in power to allow others lower on the totem pole to suffer for the common good.  Bill Penner was dismissed from his position at the FDA and indicted.  The EPA’s Richard Roberts suffered a similar fate.  But the real culprit, Germinat, was spared and business continued as usual.  This was far from a solution to the problem.  You can’t kill a snake unless you cut off the head.

     The waves lapped up against the sunny black sand beach as Seth kicked back in his chaise lounge on the balcony of his new house on the Kona coast of Hawaii.  As he relaxed, Natasha emerged from the beach house with two drinks.

     “Care for an aperitif?” she asked, handing him a tequila sunrise.

     “Yes I would.”  She put her drink down on the table and sat in the lounge next to his to watch the spectacular sunset.

     “Not a lot going on here,” she said.

     “It’s the perfect place to hide.”

     “How do you figure that?”

     “It’s away from everything, everywhere.  I have a new identity and a new job.  Nothing to bring me back to that dangerous life.”

     “But I’m not sure I want our kids to grow up here.  It’s so isolated.”

     “We can go wherever you want. As soon as my trail cools down, we’ll travel the world until we find the right place.”

     Natasha smiled and said, “Scoot over,” moving onto Seth’s chaise.  “I’m not so sure about that,” she said, stroking his hair and cuddling next to him.  “At least not for now.”

     “What do you mean?”

     “I heard that 90% of papayas are GMO.  And they grow them right here.  I also heard that the native Hawaiians have just burned several acres of papaya trees in protest.”

     “And?”

     “They obviously need a voice.”

     “I’m not sure I like where you’re going with this.”

     “Well, you stood up on the soap box, not me.  They’re even asking for you by name.”

     Seth looked around at the naturally growing papaya trees and palm trees surrounding his house, and thought once again about the ecosystem.  Was he the only one in the world who cared?

     Focusing on your own narrow needs creates apathy, which holds no benefits for anyone.  The bait on a hook is always free, and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can take it without being caught, but you will always be a puppet on someone else’s line if you don’t care enough about the big picture to let your tiny voice be heard.  When it is combined with the tiny voices of millions of others that is the real power.

     Of course, the story of Seth Rogan is fictional, but it is based on solid historical research.  If you care to read on, I have summarized some of the research.  If not, I would like to ask you now to please leave a review.  If you scroll to the last page, you will be prompted to do so.  Also, there are excerpts of
Predatory Kill,
the first novel in the Brent Marks series and the second novel in the series,
A Patriot’s Act. 
Finally, I love to get email from my readers.  Please feel free to send me one at
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.  Finally, your opinion as a reader is important to me.  if you liked this book, you can flip to the last page of it (called the “Before you go” section), and leave a review or share it with your social networks.

     Since the first edition of this book was published in late November 2013, reviews have mostly been favorable.  However, some people have complained that there is too much “technical stuff” and repetition of that “technical stuff.”  That was actually done on purpose to teach the reader something, because this is no ordinary spy novel.  It is a story that very well could happen about things that are actually now happening in the world we know today. 

     Some have also accused the novel of being “liberalist” or anti-American.  On the contrary, America is a country that was born from the concept of criticizing our leadership, always keeping them in balance, and making sure that the public has a say in forming essential government policies by electing representatives to serve us that share our own interests and concerns.

     Is this book for everyone?  No, but everyone should read it.  This is a work of fiction, but the threat is real.  Genetically engineered foods are in almost all processed food products in the United States.  A simple reading of the label will reveal one or more of the following ingredients in every one of them: corn or corn oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil (made from rapeseed oil, a GMO product), soy and/or soybean oil, and/or high fructose corn syrup.

     Genetically engineered corn and soy are used for most of the animal feed in the United States.  And GMO sweet corn is now appearing in stores.  There are no current federal labeling laws for GMO products, and two labeling measures in California and Washington have been defeated, in the wake of heavy spending of millions of dollars against the measures by Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Bayer, Coca Cola, Kellogg’s, and many others whose name you will see on products on your breakfast, lunch or dinner table.  A member of the board of directors of Mc Donalds and one from Sara Lee sit on the board of directors of Monsanto.

     The classified report on biological warfare in the story is fictitious (at least none has been disclosed) but the government reports cited from scientists at the FDA, EPA and USDA reporting GMOs as unsafe and calling for toxicology reports and further testing are real, having been accessed through litigation using the Freedom of Information Act, and you can read them on the Internet.  Arpad Pusztai is a real scientist, who conducted the first experiments on lab rats, and whose work was severely discredited until the UK government found out the real truth; that it had rushed into early approval of GMO foods and its ministers had hired Pusztai to do the study in two weeks, after already having approved GMO foods for public consumption.

     Since chemical companies invented genetically engineered seeds designed to withstand heavy sprayings of glyphosate, global use of Roundup and related weed killers has jumped to nearly 900 million pounds annually. That is due to the fact that, since the crops are engineered to be resistant to Roundup, it can be sprayed on the entire field, not just on the weeds, making it much easier for farmers to manage weed kills.  Glyphosate is a systemic chemical, meaning once sprayed, it travels up inside of the plants that people and animals eat and they consume the glyphosate as well as the nutrients in the plants. As more farm fields have converted to GMO crops, federal regulators at the EPA (and former employees of Monsanto) have quietly allowed an increase in the levels of glyphosate allowed in our food, something from which we should see tragic long term consequences.

     Monsanto originally registered the ingredient in its “Roundup,” glyphosate, for glyphosate's use as an antimicrobial agent.  This damage to your digestive system can cause other problems, including "leaky gut," where the protective lining of the gut is compromised, allowing for toxins and bacteria to enter the bloodstream. This causes the body to send off an immune response to attack the wayward bacteria, potentially sparking autoimmune diseases.

     Moreover, glyphosate interferes with tryptophan, the precursor of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter linked to happiness and well-being. Low serotonin levels have been linked to suicide, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other ailments.  Not only does glyphosate hamper tryptophan production in your gut, it also lowers levels of it in plants, causing even more of a deficiency.

     Virtually all of the genetically engineered (GMO) Bt corn grown in the U.S. is treated with neonicotinoid pesticides.  A 2012 study found high levels of clothianidin in pneumatic planter exhaust. In the study, it was found that the insecticide was present in the soil of unplanted fields nearby those planted with Bt corn and also on dandelions (a favorite of bees) growing near those fields. Once in the soil, the pesticide remains for many years, and is absorbed by any new plant life.

     The Bt toxin, which was the subject of Seth’s study in the story, essentially pokes “holes” in the cells of insects’ stomachs, killing them, and has been found to poke holes in human cells as well.  In one study, it was found in the blood of 93% of pregnant women tested, and in the blood of 80% of their unborn fetuses, which gets into the brains of the fetuses, due to the fact that there is no blood-brain barrier at that stage of development.

     Peer reviewed studies are rare in the case of GMOs, as the only ones who have the desire or the budget to perform them are the same chemical companies which fund most of the scientific research. However, the few independent studies that have been done all point to the danger of GMOs.

     Specificity of the association of GMO foods and specific disease processes is also supported. Multiple animal studies show significant immune dysregulation, including upregulation of cytokines associated with asthma, allergy, and inflammation.  Animal studies also show altered structure and function of the liver, including altered lipid and carbohydrate metabolism as well as cellular changes that could lead to accelerated aging.   Changes in the kidney, pancreas and spleen have also been documented.

     A recent 2008 study links Bt corn with infertility, showing a significant decrease in offspring over time and significantly lower litter weight in mice fed Bt corn.  American pig farmers have reported infertility and false pregnancies in their livestock after feeding them Bt corn.  The study also found that over 400 genes were found to be expressed differently in mice fed Bt corn. These are genes known to control protein synthesis and modification, cell signaling, cholesterol synthesis, and insulin regulation. Studies also show intestinal damage in animals fed GMO foods, including proliferative cell growth and disruption of the intestinal immune system.

     Because of this mounting data, it is biologically plausible for genetically modified foods to cause adverse health effects in humans.  In spite of this risk, the biotech industry claims that GMO foods can feed the world through production of higher crop yields. However, a recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists reviewed 12 academic studies and indicates otherwise: "The several thousand field trials over the last 20 years for genes aimed at increasing operational or intrinsic yield (of crops) indicate a significant undertaking. Yet none of these field trials have resulted in increased yield in commercialized major food/feed crops, with the exception of Bt corn." However, it was further stated that the increase in yields was largely due to traditional breeding improvements.

     Therefore, because GMO foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health and are without any of their claimed benefits, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) believes that it is imperative to adopt the precautionary principle, which is one of the main regulatory tools of the European Union environmental and health policy and serves as a foundation for several international agreements. The most commonly used definition is from the 1992 Rio Declaration that states: "In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.”

     The FDA does not test the safety of GMO crops. Instead, all GMO foods are assumed to be safe unless there is already evidence to the contrary. The FDA relies on self-reported data from the companies that manufacture the crops as to their safety.  Moreover, due to legal and copyright restrictions surrounding GMO patents, independent scientists must ask for the chemical companies’ permission before publishing research on their products. As a result, almost all of the long-term animal feeding studies that have ever been conducted on GMO feed have been carried out by the biotech companies themselves, with their own rules and using their own standards of reporting. What few independent studies have been conducted have shown a range of adverse health effects from reduced fertility to immune system dysfunction, liver failure, obesity and cancer.

     The revolving door between big agriculture, the FDA, the USDA and the EPA is also true.  In a classic case of revolving door politics, the Obama administration’s Deputy Commissioner of Foods, Michael Taylor, refuses to make FDA testing of GMO food safety mandatory. Taylor worked for the FDA from 1976 to 1981, when he went into private practice at a law firm who represented Monsanto, only to return through the revolving door to the FDA in 1991.  
In 1988 he published an article entitled "The De Minimis Interpretation of the Delany Clause: Legal and Policy Rationale " in the Journal of the American College of Toxicology (now called the International Journal of Toxicology), which he had previously presented in December 1986 at a symposium on Topics in Risk Analysis, sponsored by International Life Sciences Institute Risk Science Institute, Society for Risk Analysis, and Brookings Institution. The paper was delivered and published during the midst of a debate and litigation over federal agencies' interpretation of the Delaney clause, a part of federal law written in 1958 that on its face, literally prohibits any chemical from being added, in any amount, to food that is processed, if that agent is carcinogenic.

     As analytical instrumentation increased in power and more and more agents were found to be carcinogenic at very low levels, the agencies had developed a quantitative risk assessment approach to interpreting the Delaney Clause, which stated that if a carcinogen was present at levels less than 1 in 1,000,000 parts, the risk of that carcinogen was "de minimis" and it could be allowed on the market. In the article, Taylor presented arguments in favor of this approach. Advocates in favor of organic food have criticized Taylor for taking this stance and have attributed the stance not to a good faith effort to reasonably regulate, but to an alleged desire to benefit Monsanto financially.

     Between 1994 and 1996 Taylor went back through the revolving door to the USDA, where he acted as Administrator of the Food Safety & Inspection Service. During that term he implemented a science-based approach to raising safety standards for meat and poultry production over the protests from industry, which has been called by food safety advocates "a truly heroic accomplishment”
(but that was the only one). 
Between 1996 and 2000, after briefly returning to King & Spalding, he then returned to Monsanto to become Vice President for Public Policy.
In
2009, Taylor once again returned to government through the revolving door as Senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner, and was appointed by President Obama on January 13, 2010 to another newly created post at the FDA, this time as Deputy Commissioner for Foods.

     Former EPA head William Ruckelshaus, spent 2 years on Monsanto’s board of directors.  Linda J. Fisher spent a decade working as Assistant Administrator of the EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention, before leaving to head up Monsanto’s lobbying team.  Margaret Miller spent her time at Monsanto working on Monsanto’s GMO bovine growth hormone and wrote the report on it that was submitted to the FDA before taking a job as Deputy Director of the FDA, where she approved her own report.

     In July 2013, the EPA, under the leadership of former Monsanto employees, increased the allowable levels of glyphosate in food, up to 100 ppm in animal feed and 40 ppm in oilseed crops, and from 0.2 ppm to 3 ppm for sweet potatoes, and 5 ppm in carrots (15 and 20 times the prior allowed rates).

     The first version of GMO corn was attacked because it was found to be deadly to Monarch butterflies.  That corn has been banned in Poland for where it has been found to be a threat to bees.

     Beta carotene producing rice is being pushed in the Philippines, where neighbors near a Bt cornfield have already reported allergy and respiration problems.  It is expected to be pushed in India as well.  And Indonesia is taking steps to approve GMO corn and soy.